September 16 - Being Here

Crystal has a new, repeat-business client on Friday mornings, so we will re-schedule our weekly walks -- meanwhile an unaccustomed day of catch-up, with Harriet out-and-about at meetings and rehearsals (looking for a Berkeley P.O. Box for Goat Hall, among other endeavors) -- finishing a re-reading of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story (1958) and The American Dream (1960), continuing pdf of Sinfonietta: I, and composing page 6 of Psalm 72 -- thereby finishing it and Op. 187 entire.

Also receive word from ASCAP re the granting of another Standard Award... a yearly event for quite some time now... always very appreciated and welcome.

September 15 - Panoramas for Ear and Eye

On the way to DVC, decide that still more wisdom is needed re new audio mixes in Finale / Garriton, so, after a cordial and successful Quiz 5 (with musical examples from Josquin des Pres, Costanzo Festa, Henry VIII, Louis Bourgeois, Thomas Morley, and Claudio Monteverdi) with the Theoreticians, decamp to the

lab, where

Doug provides helpful assistance.

Return homeward, with a

typical stop,

then

more music -- specifically, beginning pdf for Sinfonietta, Op. 26, and composing the next page (5) of Psalm 72.

Also record the Garishtone Orchestra in the four movements of Regime Change, Op. 196 (2011) and post same at http://markalburgerworks.blogspot.com/2011/08/regime-change-op-196.html, plus happy to hear from Debby How, who is still interested in doing some minutes of Suite ("Solar") for Oboe, Piano, and Percussion at this November's Swarthmore College Alumni/Student Composition Concert.

September 14 - For the Mix

More fog

and

blue skies, down 680 again, for review and a fair number of fine student compositions from the Theoreticians (at least we've gone through last names A-F by now).  A double paper-grading day at Yan's Garden (Theory) and Elephant Bar (Music History), then back to DVC to compose the fourth page of Psalm 72 and produce final pdf (IV) for Stolen Students, Op. 25. 

Evening class right on schedule through the Guillaume de Machaut La Messe de Nostre Dame: Kyrie and

Quiz 4, with make-up quizzes next week.

September 13 - Simultaneous Perceptions

Heraclitus was right, maybe -- heading down the 680 corridor to two ways of hearing Costanzo Festa's Quando Ritrovna (When I Find My Shepherdess), plus Chords in Minor and a bit on Contrapuntal Suspensions, which proves revolutonary for

some students.

Reverse course towards

errands --

featuring a library run for Harriet, with videos including

Till the Clouds Roll By (re Jerome Kern, 1946),

Top Hat (Irving Berlin, 1934),

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, re George M. Cohan), and

Th Anton Chekhov Collection (2008) ... six discs being

Platonov (1878 / 1971) with

The Proposal (1888 / c. 1960) and The Wedding (1889 / 1962),

The Wood Demon (1889 / 1974),

The Seagull (1896 / 1978),

Uncle Vanya (1897 / 1970 /

1991),

The Three Sisters (1901), and

The Cherry Orchard (1904 / 1962 /

/ 1981) -- and musical activities du jour: Page 3 composed for Psalm 72 and pdf produced re Stolen Students: III, Op. 25.

September 12 - Back to It

Week 5 for the Theoreticians, the big one with Chords in Major, plus A Minor (Natural and Harmonic), D Major, and Louis Bourgeois's Old Hundredth for dictation, keyboard solfege, and board harmony.

Home again, finishing a re-reading of Aesop's Fables, composing a second page of Psalm 72, and doing the pdf for Stolen Students: II, Op. 25.

September 11 - Out of the Blue

From clear skies can come darkness, but, nevertheless, through the gloom comes light -- and both occur on this 10th-anniversary memorial -- pondering the passage of time through print, taking care of the day's musical business (finish daily 21st-Century Music work + reconstruction of the March 2006 back issue and emailing this latter to the printer, beginning the composition of Psalm 72 [the last of the Book II settings] and doing the pdf for Stolen Students: I, Op. 25), and

proceeding

up

the slopes of the Sierra

in

increasing

ominous

subtropical

conditions,

with downright downpours alternating in counterpoint to more mellow inclemency all the way to the Tahoe Basin... having been warned as much, but game  for anything, and keen to perhaps finish today the tracery of tread from the Pacific Ocean to the Nevada border.

Accessing the route for the first time via 267, efficiently over the Truckee River and through the surreal

Martis

Valley, the clouds begin to disperse to the east; so, head for the

state

line

and

walk

westward to connect with last week's ending at the Tahoe Vista post office at National Road.  The way leads from casinos and an out-of-business concern straddling the divide,

downslope

west through

Brockway,

to

soggy

Kings

Beach,

and lights mostly out at the Safeway.

Up to this point today, the collapsible bike has served in good stead for a series of returns after shuttle-hiking, but now, with construction, reach an impressive no-parking zone.  There's nothing to do but return to the notion of simple strolling,

and the last stretch to

National and

the adjacent taqueria are accomplished both ways on foot,

checking in with Harriet and Bette on the return course to let them know that the task has been completed.

So there it is: across the state of California -- in day hikes, slowly-but-surely -- over the course of seemingly a decade.  What next?